


Lounge Act

by criesmom



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, McDonald's, Minghao's having a good giggle, Soonyoung is an embarrassing drunk, ft. the return of Mingyu's shit eating grin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-28
Updated: 2017-08-28
Packaged: 2018-12-20 22:22:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11930505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/criesmom/pseuds/criesmom
Summary: When Soonyoung stumbled into McDonald's after leaving the club in floods of tears, he wasn't expecting to be swept off his feet by the cashier, (though that may be the alcohol talking).





	Lounge Act

**Author's Note:**

> I was listening to the Nevermind album while I wrote this lmao

Soonyoung sat down hard on the curb and immediately started crying.

He wasn’t entirely sure why he was crying; he never did when he was drunk. Three glasses into any night and he was a weepy, affectionate mess. He would flirt uncontrollably with anyone who looked at him, engage in probably a little bit too much physical contact, and then cry about the DJ’s song choice in the space of about five minutes.

Minghao sighed, placing a hand on Soonyoung’s shoulder as he joined him in the gutter outside the club. Soonyoung leaned sideways and gave pathetic, hiccupping sobs into Minghao’s shoulder. Minghao was used to this by now – he had told Soonyoung once that there were warning signs – and so he had no qualms with sitting outside at two in the morning as Soonyoung wailed.

After what could have been two minutes or an hour and a half, Soonyoung sat up again. His head was still swimming, but not enough for him to miss the sympathetic look Minghao gave him. Minghao reached up to wipe a thumb across Soonyoung’s cheek at the same time that Soonyoung gave him a feeble push.

Minghao laughed. “You’re a hot mess.”

Soonyoung’s face felt detached from his head as he smiled. “You think I’m hot.”

Minghao rolled his eyes. “You knew that already, dumbass.”

As Minghao stood up, Soonyoung furrowed his brows. Before he could process anything, Minghao was hoisting Soonyoung up from the ground with a hand under each armpit. Soonyoung immediately started whining, his eyes already brimming again.

“Let me down, I like the ground.” He tried to struggle against Minghao’s grip.

“Dude, no. We’re in a back alley outside a club, it’s fucking gross.” He slung an arm around Soonyoung’s shoulders and patted his stomach. “Come on; we’ll get you some nuggets.”

Soonyoung very quickly rediscovered his ability to stand upright. “I love Chicken McNuggets. Oh god, Minghao I’m so hungry.”

“I know, Soonyoung. I know.”

The walk to McDonald’s was painfully long. The tiny part of Soonyoung’s brain that was still sober knew that the walk was only a few hundred metres, but in his drunken state it felt like he was climbing a mountain. The whole time he tripped and stumbled, Minghao held him up and stopped him from eating shit on the pavement. Soonyoung asked the sober part of his brain to remember to thank Minghao in the morning.

Surprisingly, McDonald’s was empty. Soonyoung had expected it to be busier at two in the morning, and when he voiced this, Minghao laughed beside him.

“Dude it’s like five.”

The information was like being slapped by a wet paper towel. “The fuck.”

“Yeah man,” Minghao said as he walked Soonyoung up to the counter, “we were there till lights on. That’s why you were crying.”

It came back to him then; he had been upset because he wanted to stay for longer. His brain was starting to feel less water logged, but things were still foggy. The world looked the way it did when he was small and got off the roundabout after spinning it too fast. He was interrupted by Minghao’s hand waving in his face.

“Do you need to sit down?”

Soonyoung’s processing speed was always bad, but it was so much worse when he was drunk. “No. I need some fucking Chicken McNuggets.”

Minghao laughed, gently steering Soonyoung to look at the cashier to make his order.

When he caught sight of the cashier – who was giving them an amused smirk – Soonyoung felt the air knocked out of his lungs. The boy was taller than him and more tan, with a chiselled jawline and a mole on his left cheek that Soonyoung wanted to kiss once for every star in the sky. The drunk part of his brain screamed “Ask for his number” while the sober part wailed “This is the worst thing that has ever happened to us”. This resulted in him saying, “Uh,” for approximately thirty seconds.

Before Soonyoung ran out of breath, the cashier interjected. “McNuggets, right?”

Soonyoung shut his mouth so quickly his teeth audibly knocked against each other. In his periphery, he saw Minghao flinch. “Twenty pack with sweet and sour. And a coke McFloat. The blue one.”

The cashier nodded as he put in Soonyoung’s order, then looked to Minghao. “You paying together?”

Minghao sighed. “Yeah, I’ll just get a Big Mac, a McChicken with large fries and a large coke.”

The cashier laughed. “ ‘Just’?”

Minghao shrugged. “I’m a growing boy.”

Soonyoung watched the way the cashier’s fingers tapped at the side of the order screen. He watched the flick of his fingers as he looked for one of the options to key in, and the soft raise of his eyebrows when he found the right one.

“What’s your name?”

He looked up at Soonyoung, then held his name tag to show it to him. “Can you not read?”

Soonyoung had meant to say something like _Oh I didn’t see it,_ or _Oops_. Instead, he said; “No I’m drunk.”

Minghao snorted as he keyed in his pin number and the cashier looked as if he was trying not to laugh. “Seokmin.”

Soonyoung didn’t know why the name made him so happy, but he smiled anyway. “It’s cute. I’m Soonyoung and this is Minghao.”

Minghao shook his head. “How have you never been mugged?”

Soonyoung pouted. “Because I have you protecting me.” He watched as Seokmin disappeared into the back to make their order. “He’s hot.”

“You know you yell when you’re drunk?”

As embarrassment washed over him, Soonyoung wished he wasn’t sobering up so quickly. “I hate myself.”

In the time it took Seokmin to get their food ready, Soonyoung had done nothing but stare into space and internally lament how embarrassing he was when he was drunk. He was brought out of his stupor as Seokmin set down their tray on the counter top.

“I’m taking it you’re eating in, seeing as he can’t stand up properly.”

Soonyoung frowned, pushing up from where he was leaning against the counter. “I can stand just fine, thank you very much.” He lost track of his feet and stumbled against Minghao’s side. “That’s not very good customer service.”

Seokmin simply smiled, then gestured to the tray. “I gave you extra nuggets.”

“Chicken McNuggets,” Soonyoung corrected. “Thank you.”

“No problem,” he flashed a smile that made Soonyoung question the legitimacy of the sun. “Enjoy your meal.”

 

Soonyoung winced as his backpack hit the small unfolding desk in his lecture seat. Minghao snorted upon seeing him, and Soonyoung tugged the strings of his hoody to cover more of his face.

“How much sleep did you get last night?”

“Not enough,” Soonyoung said, slouching down in his seat and cracking open his energy drink. “I regret not sleeping as soon as I got home. You were right.”

“I always am.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Soonyoung deadpanned before chugging half the can.

After getting back to his dorm after McDonalds, Soonyoung had insisted that falling asleep was the worst thing he could possibly do at that point. He knew, realistically, that there was some truth to it and that he would have messed up his sleep schedule. What he hadn’t taken into consideration, however, was the eight o’clock lecture he had to attend on the following Monday.

In the row in front of them, Mingyu turned around to give Soonyoung a shit eating grin. “I heard you struck out with a McDonalds cashier.”

Soonyoung groaned. “That’s _not_ what happened.”

Minghao scoffed. “You yelled about him being hot and then threw up all the extra nuggets he gave you.”

This came as a surprise, and it clearly showed on Soonyoung’s face as the others laughed at him.

“Why do you let me drink at all, Jesus,” Soonyoung said, giving Minghao a shove.

He shrugged. “It’s funny watching you make a fool of yourself. Anyway, Seokmin didn’t seen too fussed with it. Pretty sure he wrote his number on the receipt.”

Soonyoung sat upright. “What? Why didn’t you start with that, what the fuck? Where is it?”

Minghao shook his head, still smiling wide. “You threw it away, dude. You looked at it, laughed, then crumpled it up and said ‘I don’t need that’ and threw it in a bin. In front of him.”

Soonyoung stared blankly ahead at the wall opposite him. “I am the worst human being in the entire world and I should never be allowed to drink.”

Mingyu opened his mouth – already a bad sign – and rested his chin on his forearm across the back of his seat. “Did you not like him in the end?”

“Mingyu, this man is fucking beautiful. I don’t think I realised his number was on it.” He frowned. “Do you think he noticed?”

Minghao shrugged. “Maybe. But maybe he was too busy mopping up your vomit.”

Mingyu grinned. “Guess we’ll never know.”

The lecturer entered at that point, and Soonyoung was happy to end the conversation and listen. He didn’t do much listening in the end, and instead fell asleep on Minghao’s shoulder. Minghao was kind enough to let him sleep through the lecture, but as soon as they were dismissed he shrugged abruptly. Soonyoung woke with a grunt, immediately regretting missing any more of the class than he already had in the semester.

Mingyu was already standing up with his bag on his back. “What are you doing now?”

Soonyoung heaved himself out of his seat and swung his arms through the straps of his bag. “I’m gonna blast Nirvana and feel sorry for myself until I find purpose again.”

Mingyu laughed as Minghao shook his head. “You’re so dramatic.”

 

Soonyoung had always liked driving; having sat the test for his license at three in the afternoon on his eighteenth birthday. He found it cathartic in the way his brain went on auto pilot and he was able to just listen to music or think. He liked to listen to 90s grunge bands – his favourite being Nirvana, of course – and blast them through the speakers of his shitty car he bought when he was seventeen.

He decided, however, as he pulled up at the McDonald’s drive through, that he would never sit behind the wheel of a car ever again.

 _Lounge Act_ by Nirvana was playing, the bass heavy and rumbling through the floor of his car as he stared up at Seokmin in the window, holding out his take away bag and ice cream cone. Seokmin was wearing the same smile of amusement from the other night as he realised who he was serving. He tried to say something, but Soonyoung couldn’t hear him over the music.

“What?”

Seokmin’s words were faint and muffled, but Soonyoung thought he said; “The music is too loud.”

“The music’s too loud,” Soonyoung said, realising too late that Seokmin had just said the same thing.

Seokmin looked like he was laughing as he nodded. “Turn it down.”

“I should turn it down,” Soonyoung said, feeling his ears burn as he turned down the dial on his dashboard.

When he looked back to Seokmin, he was beaming. “You’re the guy from the other night, right? Soonyoung?”

Soonyoung felt his insides shrivel up and start to decay. “Yeah. Seokmin?”

Seokmin gestured to his name tag. “Still can’t read? Or still drunk?”

“God, don’t even talk about drinking to me right now.” Soonyoung’s eyes swam against the pressure of his hands as he rubbed them.

Seokmin only laughed, but it wasn’t unkind. “How are you _still_ hungover?”

“I didn’t sleep the day after.” Soonyoung checked his wing mirror to see if he was holding anyone up, but the drive through was empty behind him. “Didn’t wanna fuck up the sleep schedule.”

“I can see that’s working out well for you.” A corner of Seokmin’s mouth was lilting with sarcasm. “Are you always that rude when you’re drunk?”

Soonyoung internally kicked himself. “Is this about the receipt?” Seokmin nodded. “I swear I didn’t know your number was on it. Receipts are a waste of paper and pointless in a world where we can check our bank details on an app.”

Seokmin set Soonyoung’s order aside out of sight before leaning his elbows on the windowsill. “What about merchant copies?”

Soonyoung had a moment of unreality. He was sitting in his car, engine still running and music still playing, talking to an undeniably good looking boy, (even when Soonyoung was sober), who was leaning out of the drive through window in the middle of the day. And, said boy had cleaned up his vomit just twenty-four hours ago.

“All the orders get put into your computer system. It can’t be that hard to keep it all on digital memory.”

Seokmin frowned, but he was still smiling. “You seem to have given this a lot of thought.”

Soonyoung waved a dismissive hand. “It just makes more sense to not have receipts. You know, global warming and all that garbage.”

“I guess that’s just how things go in this capitalist society. Here I am, selling hours of my human life to serve environmentalists like you and clean up your vomit so that I can trade that money for other goods and services. It’s a vicious cycle.”

Soonyoung hummed in agreement. “Can I get my food?”

Seokmin looked as if he had forgotten that there was any food to give; his expression that of soft surprise as he leant back and got Soonyoung’s order. Seokmin held out the bag and ice cream, and before thinking it through, Soonyoung was grabbing his cone by the ice cream. It had melted a little in the time they had been talking and oozed between his fingers. Tiny rivers ran down his forearm as larger globs fell to the tarmac below. The two of them froze in shock, watching as the ice cream was completely destroyed by Soonyoung’s fist.

Seokmin was the first do actually do something, as he pulled the cone away and laughed. Soonyoung was left dripping ice cream from his fingertips as Seokmin disappeared and then came back with a wad of napkins. He held Soonyoung’s wrist gently as he mopped at Soonyoung’s hand and then down his forearm. Soonyoung felt his heart catapult itself into his throat and punch his wind pipe.

Seokmin’s voice wavered in his effort not to cackle. “Do you want me to make another one?”

Soonyoung stared dumbly at Seokmin’s fingers. “Don’t worry about it.”

When he was finished, Seokmin disappeared again to dispose of the napkins before returning to the window with an eftpos machine. He handed Soonyoung first his paper takeaway bag and then the machine.

“It’s seven thousand, five hundred and fifty-nine won. I didn’t charge you for the ice cream, but there’s a six pack of nuggets in there for you.”

“Chicken McNuggets,” Soonyoung corrected as he keyed in his pin. He crossed his fingers before removing his card, breathing a sigh of relief when it was accepted.

Seokmin took the machine back from him and tore off his receipt. “Don’t go yet.”

Soonyoung waited in his car – which was fast filling with the smell of his food – as Seokmin ducked down and reappeared with a pen. He leant on a bench out of sight below the window and scribbled on the back of the receipt. When he was finished, he held the paper up.

“Do you promise not to throw it away this time?”

Soonyoung laughed, holding out his hand. “I promise. I might even text you.”

Seokmin flashed a full and unbridled smile as he placed the receipt in Soonyoung’s upturned palm. The touch was light through the paper, but it still made Soonyoung’s heart speed up where it sat on the back of his tongue.

“I for one hope you do. Oh, hey, before you go,” Soonyoung’s hand froze where it was reaching for the steering wheel as Seokmin smirked at him, “for what it’s worth; I think you’re hot too.”

Soonyoung couldn’t remember what he said to Seokmin as he drove away, but he did remember the bubble of sheer happiness that filled his chest and numbed his cheeks.

**Author's Note:**

> Gotta say ,,, this isn't one of my best moments lmao  
> For those of you who have read [Wrong Number](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10819011) (if you haven't please do I'm so proud of it), a group of friends and I are making a podfic !! we need more cast members so please [check this out](http://qyusoon.tumblr.com/post/164659938027) and let me know if you're interested


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